FASHION’S VICTIMS 
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The Black-Crowned Night-Heron 1 breeds 
all around New York City, and every summer 
two or three come and try to break into the great 
Flying Cage of the New York Zoological Park. 
As its name implies, this bird has a crown of 
glossy black feathers, with two or three long 
white occipital plumes. This is a southern bird, 
but it breeds as far north as Massachusetts 
and Illinois. Like its twin, the Y ellow-Cr owned 
Night-Heron, it is half nocturnal in its habits. 
When at night in Florida you hear a bird say 
“Quawk!” and repeat it to you from the depths 
of the mangroves as your boat glides by, you 
know it is a Night-Heron. Both these species 
have beautiful plumage, and are handsome 
birds. Their distinguishing marks are, thick 
bodies, and short, thick necks; short legs (for 
herons), and two or three round, wisp-like 
plumes from five to seven inches long growing 
out of the top of the head, and drooping back- 
ward. 
The Snowy Heron, or Snowy Egret , 2 when 
fully adult, is the most beautiful white bird in all 
the avian world. Its form is the embodiment 
of symmetry and grace, its plumage is immacu- 
late, and the filmy “plumes” on its head and 
back are like spun glass. Its black legs and bill 
merely serve to intensify the whiteness of its 
feathers. 
But the vanity of women has been the curse 
of the snowy egret. Its plumes are finest during 
the breeding season, and it was then that the 
hunters sought them, slaughtering the parent 
birds in the rookeries by thousands (when they 
were abundant), and leaving the nestlings to 
die of starvation. If all women could know the 
price in blood and suffering which is paid for 
the accursed “aigrettes” of fashion, surely but 
few could find any pleasure in wearing them . 3 
It is strange that civilized women — the tender- 
hearted, the philanthropic and compassionate — 
should prove to be the evil genius of the world’s 
most beautiful birds. 
1 Nyc-ti-co'rax nydicorax nae’vi-us. Length, 24.50 
inches. 
2 E-gret'ta can-di-dis' si-ma. Length, about 23 
inches. 
3 Thanks to the efforts of the Audubon Societies, 
the American Ornithologists’ Union and the United 
States Biological Survey, the laws of the United 
States now prohibit the sale of aigrettes throughout 
the United States, irrespective of the countries from 
which they come. 
In Florida, this bird once lived and bred, in 
thousands, on the head waters of the St. Johns, 
around the Everglades, and the heads of the 
streams that run down to the sea. At the 
first shot fired in a rookery, a white cloud 
would arise, and old residents tell how “the 
savannas were sometimes white” with these 
beautiful creatures. To-day, not half enough 
/ V 
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LITTLE GREEN HERON. 
remain to stock our zoological gardens. The 
slaughter has been exasperatingly complete, 
and protection has come too late. 
In the United States the Snowy Egret ex- 
ists now only by accident, and the “plume- 
hunters” are pursuing this and the next species 
in Central and South America, to their most 
remote haunts, sometimes even at the risk of 
their lives. Fashion, cruel and remorseless, 
has decreed that the egrets must go! 
The American Egret, or Great White 
Egret , 4 is, when adult, our second largest bird 
4 Her-o' di-as e-gret'ta. Length, about 40 inches. 
